announcer: How do I know which path is best for me?

Is it possible to take on these challenges and obstacles?

Where do I even start?

Where do I even start?

What should I do with my life?

Sometimes the only way to find out is to go see what's possible.

Since 2001, we've been sharing the stories of people who ventured out and explored different career paths and different possibilities for their futures.

This is one of those stories.

This is Roadtrip Nation.

Anjali: Looking back at everything we've experienced thus far, I feel very empowered and inspired by all the conversations we've had.

Davida: We are looking at mental health and well-being, interviewing leaders who are doing real work in their community.

Raul: I've definitely been inspired on this road trip multiple times.

Every time I'm talking to a leader, I'm always sitting there just being like, this is an amazing person doing amazing work.

I know this experience is gonna give me more hope and motivation for what I can do, what can be done out there.

Anjali: We are going in this bright green RV, a cross country road trip from Boston all the way down to Georgia.

Davida: We're gonna be looking at mental health and well-being, interviewing leaders who are doing real work in their community.

Raul: They're people who have gone out, they've made their change, and now they're gonna be talking to us so that maybe we can make some impact ourselves.

Davida: Oh, wow, there's so many spider webs.

Do you guys like Charlotte-- Anjali: "Charlotte's Web"?

That book's so sad.

Davida: Why?

Raul: "Why?"

Anjali: They all die at the end.

Davida: Oh, I don't know if I finished-- Raul: Did you not make it to the end?

Davida: I don't know.

I thought I did.

Raul: So we're already halfway through the trip, halfway through all the interviews.

It's been really fun so far.

There was no better bonding experience than all three of us roadtrippers living together inside a single RV.

Raul: Three, two, one.

Anjali: [screams] Davida: Oh, God.

Raul: That's disgusting, bro, stop.

Davida: So chunky.

Davida: I feel like Anjali and Raul always find ways to keep themselves entertained, which is great because sometimes you just, you just, you have to do something.

Raul: It's time for the chamoy pickle.

Anjali: Red 40, hello.

Davida: This is carcinogens, bro.

Anjali: Im so scared Davida: You should be.

Raul: All right, cheers.

Anjali: [squeals] Raul: Cheers.

Dink it and sink it.

♪♪♪ Raul: [coughing] Anjali: It's really eye-opening to like be able to have fun with them and do things like karaoke and make banana pancakes that don't taste very good, but then also being able to have that type of emotional depth, I feel like I can go to them and talk to them about anything and that really matters to me.

♪♪♪ Davida: We're on our way to DC to interview Charles Rominiyi of DC Greens.

Raul: They actually have a really cool program where they're prescribing fresh fruits and vegetables, so I'm really interested in how the positive impact of that has been noticed.

Anjali: Hi.

Davida: Nice to meet you.

I'm Davida.

Nice to meet you.

Anjali: Nice to meet you.

Anjali: Tell us all about DC Greens, your mission, purpose here, and the work that you all are doing.

Charles: Our mission here is to advance health equity by building a more just and resilient food system.

So we do a lot of food access work, food distributions.

We have agricultural workshops where we're teaching people how to garden and how to farm and we also have wellness programs too, so yoga and step class just trying to create that culture of wellness, right, for the community there's a lot of the work that we're doing here at DC Greens.

A lot of our volunteers come here on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays after a long day of work, they come and do more work but it's not work to them, right?

It's stress relief.

They know that they're doing something to make an impact in a local community and it brings them all types of healing, it brings them all types of peace.

And when you get your hands in the soil and you, you know, harvest some fruits and some vegetables, there's just something that happens.

Raul: So just being here, I can totally tell this like amazing atmosphere of this whole area.

I mean people have been walking by playing music, been laughing.

What's your favorite part about having a community center that's so open?

Charles: Meeting the cast of characters that come into the space.

I mean, people come into the space with life experience.

They've been through things, they live here and they really need resources.

And being that community liaison for somebody in need, that's public health, right?

That's the work right there.

I really believe that being healthy and having access to fresh fruits and vegetables and safety, it's so fundamental.

Can you think about people not having access to fresh food?

And it's that simple for me, so it starts with a belief that we can get at least 1% better every day.

We can do something, but all you gotta do is help one person, and sometimes that person is yourself.

Davida: I love that interview.

I love gardening.

It's like something that my dad and I used to do all the time.

It was just so fun to pick up the fruit from the trees.

Mmm-mmm, whoa, oh wow.

So good.

Raul: When we were there we saw a bunch of people picking up figs, eating them, just going throughout the garden like it was theirs 'cause it was theirs, it was community's.

Anjali: Food insecurity is a big problem that we have in society, but it often goes overlooked.

It was just a wonderful place to be at DC Greens and you could just see kindness radiating from every branch.

I really appreciated being there.

Davida: Today we're in DC and we're gonna interview Neely Bardwell from the Center of Native American Youth.

Raul: Going into this trip, I wanted to find out if culture has a place in mental health.

Does it have a place in regular health?

I just wanna see if there are, like, people thinking about it and not only thinking about it, but like trying to put it into use.

Neely: [speaking in Anishinaabemowin] Boozhoo, Manidookwe ndizhinikaaz.

Lowell ndoonjiba.

Waganakising Odawa ndaw.

Piscataway-akiing ndaa.

Neely: My name is Neely.

I just did my introduction in my traditional language, which is Anishinaabemowin.

I'm Odawa.

My tribe is Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.

I am one of the program coordinators at the Center for Native American Youth.

Raul: It seems like you use culture as like a massive tool for your mental health and just like learning about like your cultural roots.

How do you engage with your culture every day?

Neely: So yeah, I try and smudge every day.

Obviously it doesn't always happen.

I mean, we're living a very busy life in Western society.

But sometimes for me I find it really important to find those times where you can slow down and just sit with yourself, sit with your thoughts.

This is a stick of sage, so sage is sacred.

It's one of our four sacred medicines.

Each has a different purpose when it comes to our culture.

And so sage is meant for cleansing both spiritually, physically, mentally.

It kind of helps to call our spirit back to our physical.

And for me the smell of sage is also really calming too.

It reminds me of being back home, being in my community.

I've realized that Western medicine is not the only medicine that we can use to treat our health and mental health.

That's where smudging comes in.

That's where, you know, laying sema comes in.

That's where having sweet grass around comes in.

And so I try and utilize our traditional medicines on top of obviously Western medicine is obviously very helpful [laughs] as well, so.

Raul: Have you heard of the concept of "cultura cura" like culture as medicine?

I feel like that's exactly what you're talking about.

Neely: That's exactly what it is, no, that's exactly it.

Like, studies have literally been done that show like the more connected you are to your culture, the healthier you are.

And so that's what we're trying to do with our native youth is get them back in their culture if they've been disconnected or if they are connected, you know, giving them more opportunities to share their culture and share their community, 'cause when you are connected to your culture the healthier you are.

Anjali: That's amazing.

I guess to sum it up, this road trip is all about mental health and wellbeing, so my question for you is why does mental health matter to you and your community?

Neely: When I think of mental health, I think of not just depression, anxiety, stuff like that, it's also spiritual health, cultural health, physical health, and so when it comes to addressing mental health issues and crises in Native communities, it's done by addressing language health, right?

It's about addressing cultural vitalization.

Like, do they have access to their community?

Do they have access to the medicines.

Like, do they have access to sage?

Can they smudge?

So yeah, mental health is really important 'cause if we're not healthy, we have nothing to give back into taking care of the land and in our communities.

Anjali: Interviewing somebody who is about the same age as all of us was a really important experience because it shows that Gen Z is not only the future but we're also the right now and we are making change.

Raul: She was talking about her culture and that's exactly where my interests lie.

Engaging my culture has made me feel so closer to my community, to my brothers, to my family, just to see that's a universal feeling, it's really cool.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Davida: Hey guys, we're in the Great Smoky Mountains in the rain.

A rain jacket was not on the packing list.

I would have packed it.

Anjali: I see you in your rain jacket.

Flip the camera.

Raul: Crew is prepared and did not tell us.

Anjali: Two of them.

We found ourselves at the Great Smoky Mountains and it started raining, so we--I, not we, I jumped out of the RV and danced in the rain and jumped around.

Look how amazing it is.

Right after that, we decided to go on this hike.

It was about 6 miles and it was my first real hike.

Anjali: This is so fun.

Is this what hiking is?

Crew: This is what hiking is.

Anjali: I love it.

Anjali: Growing up, I liked to do anything active.

It's always just been a really big part of my life.

I was a part of my varsity high school lacrosse team for three years.

I ended up having to medically retire after sustaining three concussions from the sport.

It was like one of the hardest things I ever had to do because that team was like my family.

A brain injury really messed with my vision, my focus, my memory.

Even now, like I go like this, it's still double, like about here, it just was like a big impact in my life.

So through all this disability advocacy has become really important to me as well as mental health advocacy.

Anjali: It's important to recognize that mental health is health and every single person in this room has a mental health just like we all have a physical health.

Anjali: A lot of times young people are pushed to the side when it comes to mental health advocacy, but what I've noticed is that when we give Gen Z a seat at the table, really big things are able to happen.

We have stories to tell, and these stories are able to save lives, and being able to amplify them is how we make impact in this space.

Anjali: Hey, guys, we're about to see the waterfall.

Goodness, don't fall.

Anjali: In all honesty, I have no idea what I wanna do with my life.

I don't know what direction I want my career to go.

Wow!

But I do know what matters to me and why it matters, and so I'm hoping that that'll guide me throughout that journey.

One, two, three.

Finding a path and saying like it's okay to like go on the journey to try and figure things out and do things just to learn and do things just to explore and so I'm really hoping to get that out of the road trip.

♪♪♪ Raul: Today we're in Atlanta and we're gonna speak with Eric Gray of Catalyst Sports.

Raul: Hello.

Eric: Hey, how you doing?

Raul: Raul.

Eric: Eric.

Raul: Nice to meet you.

Eric: Raul, nice to meet you.

Anjali: Hi, so nice to meet you.

Eric: My name is Eric Gray.

I'm the founder and executive director of Catalyst Sports.

We're a nonprofit organization that provides access to adventure in the outdoors for people with physical disabilities.

Davida: So we just came back from Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains, and I just saw on your website that you guys are doing work with hiking.

So could you kind of explain more of what that partnership entails?

Eric: Sure, there was a park ranger at the Smoky Mountains National Park that reached out to us and said, "Hey, we wanna start making the park more accessible."

So we did adaptive hiking with adaptive chairs on a lot of the trails that we identified.

I remember a park ranger talking to one of the adaptive athletes saying, "Hey, where do you live?"

'Cause people came from all over.

We had someone drive down from Ohio just to be like, "Hey, I can access a national park, here I come."

And so the person said, "Oh, I live right outside the park."

You know, and they said, "Well you know, how often do you come here?"

It was like, "This is my first time," right?

And you just saw it in the ranger's face, it's just like, I can't believe that a place that I love and I am so passionate about and I think that everyone has access to, there are people right outside the park that have never been here because we haven't provided access before.

So for Catalyst to be able to provide these opportunities it's just like you or me, like why do we get outside.

You know, for us we can go for a walk, for other people it's not that easy.

So how can we provide these opportunities through the adaptive equipment that we have?

You know, whether you can't use your legs or you can't use an arm, it doesn't matter.

We're there to help you get out into nature and find those healing pieces that provide, you know, that mental health relief.

Anjali: From my experience doing like athletics and sports, I know how big of a difference it's not only had for my physical health but also my mental health and, like, wellbeing.

Could you talk a little bit about what sports and adventure and being outside does for your mental health, but also how have you seen it impact the people that you serve at Catalyst?

Eric: Yeah, absolutely.

I absolutely love the outdoors.

I know that it's a place that I can go for healing.

You know, if I'm stressed out, I go for a walk, I get outside.

Growing up I had childhood cancer, so with that I went to a camp for kids specifically that had cancer, and so it was an opportunity where I could go and feel normal and people weren't asking like, "Why are you bald or what happened to your eye?"

or anything like that.

So that sense of inclusion, I think, played a real role in the beginning of Catalyst Sports.

We've had therapists say to their patients, the inpatient, and say, "Hey, for your weekend, I want you to go climbing with Catalyst Sports," and they're like, "I wanna get better.

I'm not here for like recreation like I'll do that once I'm better," right?

But they're like, "No, you need to be a part, you need to see this community and you need to try climbing."

Not everyone that comes to our climbing program absolutely loves climbing.

They're not psyched on climbing, they're not following all the pro climbers, but they love that community because they love them.

So being accepted and being able to like, you know, try something new, build trust, build support within that, I think that's a pretty good day of therapy.

Anjali: Seeing the impacts of things like biking and rock climbing have on people who often felt like they were counted out in those types of environments and spaces was really awesome.

Raul: Having just come from the Great Smoky National Park, I mean, I could totally see how it's not accessible to those with physical disabilities.

The way Eric said it, he said it's like for us it's more of a want, but as you have less and less access opportunity to go out, it becomes more of a need.

Anjali: We also got to try out the accessible bikes that they have there and it was so much fun.

We were driving around really fast and it was the first time that I've biked since I got my concussions and so it was just like a really freeing experience and I really appreciated that.

Davida: Today is the last day of the trip and we're speaking with the mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens.

Andre Dickens: The health of an individual is extremely important, but also the health of a community, the health of a whole city.

It could be improved or it could be harmed by environmental factors, by economic factors.

So we've really, from a city perspective, invested in people to have better mental health in the city, a comfortable life, a quality of life.

And then also giving them tools on how to resolve challenges that come up.

Anjali: I was in Atlanta at the state Capitol.

I was actually doing like a mental health training.

And it was just really inspiring to be with all these kids learning about public service and what that means to them.

Could you tell us a little bit more about all the work that you've been doing in the city to help with well-being of all the people in Atlanta?

Andre: Yeah, you know, I'm very committed to our youth.

I declared it the year of the youth in Atlanta a few years back.

Things went so well, I declared it the year of the youth again and again, and so now every year is the year of the youth, because we wanna help them get good grades and graduate.

This administration along with the school system, we have the highest graduation rate ever in the city's history, and this is because we're trying to help these kids be able to get to where they're going, where they want to go, what careers they wanna go in.

But we're also giving them things that can help with their mental health.

The state of Georgia is 47th in the nation in terms of mental health support.

So that has to change.

We wanna make sure that folks know that it is okay to say you're not okay and then for us to advocate for them and they can advocate for themselves.

And so for me, even at the mayor level, yes I have to deal with public safety, yes I have to deal with potholes and parks and all those things, I do also have to become very familiar with and continue to advocate around mental health.

Raul: Well, we have this one question we always ask everybody like if you have one piece of advice for people our age who are starting like our careers, like maybe we don't know exactly what we're going into, but we just have an inkling like how should we follow that?

Andre: Well, one thing I'll say is I always shared my dream.

I told people that I had this big dream of becoming mayor.

Some people are afraid to share their dreams because they might feel like, "What if I don't make it?

Everybody's gonna be disappointed in me."

For me, I said I wanted to be mayor and I told people that, and even after the guidance counselor said there's only one mayor at a time and all these other jobs.

You can have 5000 engineers, but there's only one mayor.

Nobody in your family has ever gone to college, nobody's been in politics before, so what makes you think you're gonna be the mayor?

And I'm like, I'm gonna do it, and I told everybody, everywhere I went, and I will say that to you and to anybody that's asking the question of how do I get started or what advice I would give, I would say whatever you really, really believe in, go for it.

I shared my dream and what happened was people all around me reminded me of it.

So when your goal is so big, you might want some help and so I'm thankful that little young Andre told everybody what he wanted to be so that when the time came, they were right there with me.

Anjali: It was really interesting to see a public servant acknowledge the struggles that are happening in Georgia but also across the US.

As someone who might want to pursue something in public service or politics, it didn't seem so out of touch and so far away, it seems like something that was achievable.

Davida: I think the work that he's doing within mental health is great, but also he had such good advice.

Like, my biggest takeaway was like let people know your dreams even though you might feel like that there are like barriers, the sky is your limit and it starts with like I think on the ground grassroots work.

Andre: Broadcast your dream.

It's from me.

Davida: Okay, so right now we're cleaning the RV.

Well, I'm not, I'm cleaning the table.

Davida: So right now it is our last day of filming and I'm feeling a little bit bittersweet.

Raul: I'm gonna miss just exploring everywhere, going to new places, going to Punxsutawney, going to New York.

We did so much in so little time.

Raul: Guys, we need the numbers.

Oh yeah, yeah, 9.5.

I'm not gonna lie, this is really good pizza.

What do we got?

Anjali: I'm just happy to be here.

Anjali: I'm just thinking back to all the incredible things I've gotten to be a part of and experience and the family that I've gotten to kind of dive into.

We're RAD, R A D. Raul: Radical dude, Crew: Raul, Anjali, Davida makes-- Anjali: RAD.

It's been really awesome to see how we each have very different perspectives relating to mental health and wellness.

Like, we go through the same interview but we each take something out completely different.

Davida: I think I came on this trip to learn and I learned so much from everyone we've interviewed or even talked to, like, on the road.

There are so many ways that you can be involved in well-being and it doesn't have to be becoming like a mental health professional.

It can also be working with your own community, making sure spaces are accessible.

I think that's like a huge part and I think there is so much that well-being can entail, especially in your career.

Melissa: I've had my own frustrations with modern medicine.

And it was through my own journey of looking for alternatives that led me down the holistic path of finding yoga and meditation to help with pain control.

And it inspired me to embark on a yoga teacher training as an individual with a disability to be able to bring visibility to the issue and to be able to bring wellness to the disability community.

Raul: All of our leaders, they set out to do what they wanted to do, what they felt they needed to do, and then they just figured it out on the way, and it showed that not everybody has like a set path.

It definitely gives me, I guess, a lot more confidence in going into the world and doing what I wanna do and maybe what I think needs to be done.

Doreen: Anytime you're working with people in need you become the holder of hope and the world can be rough, right?

And so I think what keeps me going is just staying connected to the hope that we can really change things.

Anjali: One takeaway that I've had from this road trip has been that we can come together to foster a more compassionate empathetic world around us and seeing the value of that just going through every day going through 11 different interviews, hearing people's stories is something that I don't think I'll ever forget and something that I'll talk about for the rest of my life.

Davida: Everyone, like, they've had their own journey and it has always, like, I think, impacted their next role or their next passion, and so for me I think that's something that I wanna take away because, like, again, I think that sometimes we can be impatient, but just like the gardens in DC Greens, like, you have to--I feel like wait for it to grow and so I think I'll try to do that more.

Raul: Since the beginning of the trip I was already like apprehensive about medical school, like, it's gonna be so much time, money, studying.

This trip has given me, like, I guess more confidence and just taking it step by step going with the flow.

I'm just really hopeful for what the world has in store for me.

Anjali: Honestly, even though this part of the road trip is done, it's really not the end.

My entire life's going to be an opportunity to explore and be curious and figuring out how I'm gonna take action little by little is what I think matters the most.

Raul: Bye.

Anjali: I love you guys so much.

Can we do a group hug?

Raul: Okay, group hug.

Anjali: Davida, what was-- Raul: There's a thing right here.

Davida: There's--you're trying to make us all fall.

Anjali: Group hug, group hug, group hug.

Raul: Group hug.

announcer: Wondering what to do with your life?

Well, we've been there and we're here to help.

Our website has some awesome tools to help you find your path, and you can check out all our documentaries, interviews, and more.

Start exploring at ROADTRIPNATION.COM.

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